The Rx7 was only one of the many cars that were powered by the rotary engine. Dr. Ing. Felix Heinrich Wankel invented this type of engine in the 1950's. This design was bought by Mazda and used in many of they're automobiles from the 1960's - today.

12A (1.2 liter twin rotor n/a) 13B (1.3 liter twin rotor n/a / turbo) and 20B (2.0 triple rotor n/a / turbo) are some of the rotary engine codes that are well known. The engine sits just behind the Rx7’s strut towers making it a true front mid engine car which gives the car great handling characteristics and the proud owner bragging rights. The turbocharged rotaries are terribly unreliable and in reality have to be overhauled every 70,000 miles. The apex seals are one of the weakest points in the motor, second warping the rotor housing from over heating occurs very often. These cars have terrible gas mileage and are not pleasant to drive behind with your windows down. A rotary engine burns oil from the factory to lubricate the rotor housing walls. Failure to pamper these cars will result in a blown engine very early in the cars life. These cars have a very hard time passing smog tests with high milage.

Rx7’s are great cars from beginning to end, I love them, but I already have a girlfriend that needs enough maintenance.. my 240Z does me just fine.

Hey look another flame shot out of that Rx7's tailpipe.. what a surprize.

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Stands for Rotary eXperiment 7, quite possibly the greatest japanese car ever. Whether its drifting, drag racing, road racing, or whatever you wanna do with it, this car will do it all. The last generation of RX-7s (FD3S) is powered by a 13B-REW. This 1.3 liter 2 rotor, twin turbo engine can get you from 0 to 60 in 4.7 seconds in its stock form, not to mention its world class handling and braking. Give it a few mods and you'll have a hard time finding someone you can't smoke. But RX-7s aren't for everyone, you have to know what your doing with it or else the price of a rebuild can be costly.

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Stand for Rotary project 7. The engine uses no pistons. It has less parts than a piston engine, which means less friction. Rotarys are unique to the piston, and are a whole nother ball game to fix. It came in in 2 popular engine names the 13B which was on the FC 1986-1991 (or in japan 1992) the 13B-RE which is in the FD 1993. The FD was asequential turbo setup, the FC was a single turbo(in the states they were NA or Turbo)(1992 Japan was produced with special FC's the Infini models) both cars offer near 50/50 weight distribution. they are light and potently fast. Those Mustang guys think 1.3 liters is nothing huh? Well, you be suprised how the FC's and FD's can certianly become a challenge for the 5.0 crap. (BTW, all the FC's in Japan were turbo even the convertibles.) The Us did not get as lucky.

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Tech stuff:
A four-stroke engine's cylinder fires only once every two revolutions.
A two-stroke's cylinder fires every revolution, so a 2-stroke has (all things being equal) double the output for the same cylinder size.
Problem is that 2-stroke petrol engines don't scale up in size well (though some industrial Diesels *are* 2-stroke).
The rotary fires (like the 2-stroke) once for each revolution, so it has potentially twice the output for the same volume as a 4-stroke, plus the rotary *does* scale up OK.
Piston engines absorb energy during the compression cycle, giving a negative torque, but rotaries provide positive torque for each entire revolution, since compression, power and exhaust occur simultaneously.
Rotaries can run to very high rpms compared to piston engines because their motion is continuous rather than reciprocating and because the few rotating parts are small-ish and can be made very robust, while piston engines are limited to lower and lower rpms as they scale up.
Rotaries are thirsty if you cane them, but I get 30 mpg touring at 70 mph in my 1985 Series 3, no mods.
Fuel consumption is an issue - it's to do with the combustion space being a long, thin rectangle, rather than the more ideal cylindrical space of a piston engine.
And having a turbo giving over 270 shaft HP from a 1.3 litre engine has got to be a temptation....
But no, NOTHING else in the car park looks as damn sexy!

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Actually stands for 'Rotary Xecret 7' (Dont ask me why they chose 'X' instead of 'S', because I dont know, or care.) 3rd generation models are the most popular, and aside from certain models (type r, rz, r bathurst) they came with 260bhp stock on the 13B REW engine. The other models all came with 280bhp, revised suspension, and the rz's all came in pearl white mica with red recaro trim interior. An extremely capable sports car, it is one of the greatest automotive inventions ever. For a car which is a 1.3 (although to compare it to other cars its a 2.6), its potential is amazing. Only does 12mpg, but until you have to refuel, or your apex seals blow, it will quite happily whip the living shit out of most cars on the road.